HOUSTON: NASA on Tuesday provided new Artemis III details and announced the four prime crew members and a backup for the test flight.<\/p>\n
The official statement highlighted that the mission will undertake a series of challenging tests in Earth orbit in 2027, essential for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028.<\/p>\n
As per the statement, the crew members include NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, commander; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot; NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, mission specialist; and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, mission specialist.<\/p>\n
NASA astronaut Bob Hines was named as a backup crew member.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the crew will begin training immediately on Orion spacecraft systems, as well as assist in the development and operations of the test versions of Blue Origin and SpaceX landers.<\/p>\n
It further noted how during Artemis III, the agency\u2019s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to low Earth orbit. After Orion systems checkouts, the spacecraft will, for the first time, demonstrate rendezvous and docking capabilities with test versions from one, or both, American commercial human landing systems in development by Blue Origin and SpaceX. It highlighted how the mission includes a dramatic multi-launch campaign of the world\u2019s most powerful rockets, testing integrated hardware between Orion and the landers, including system interfaces, software, propulsion, and communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we take another bold step in humanity\u2019s return to the Moon, building on the extraordinary foundation laid by the Artemis II astronauts,\u201d said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. \u201cTheir achievements reignited global excitement for exploration, and now they pass the torch to the Artemis III team, Randy, Luca, Frank, and Andre,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Artemis III astronauts, alongside ESA and our international partners, and the tens of thousands of the best and brightest across the agency and industry, are ushering in a new Golden Age of exploration, carrying forward the hopes and dreams of the next generation just as the Apollo astronauts did for so many of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This also is the first time an ESA astronaut has been assigned an Artemis mission.<\/p>\n
The Artemis III mission builds on the successful Artemis II flight completed in April and will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts, Americans, to Mars.<\/p>\n
Artemis III includes launching the world\u2019s most powerful rockets in short order. Blue Origin\u2019s lander pathfinder, which is able to stay in orbit for multiple weeks, will launch first and await the crew. NASA will send the astronauts aboard Orion by SLS to orbit Earth before rendezvousing in space with the company\u2019s lander test article and spending about two days docked together for tests and technology demonstrations, including entering the lander, the statement said.<\/p>\n
It added that after completing docked operations with Blue Origin, Orion will detach and await Starship. SpaceX\u2019s Starship pathfinder will launch and meet up with Orion to spend about a day connected for checkouts and testing. After that, Orion and its crew will undock and return home, splashing safely down in the Pacific Ocean, where a team from the U.S. Navy and NASA will recover the astronauts.<\/p>\n
In total, the crew is expected to remain in space for about two weeks, with exact mission length to be determined in real time based on launch, rendezvous, and docked operations. (ANI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON: NASA on Tuesday provided new Artemis III details and announced the four prime crew members and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-727952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}